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How To Pray

“You don’t have to throw your bare knees to the cold stone floor at you bedside”, she said.

“There are other ways to pray. Just sit comfortable, close your eyes, be still and call on God(dess) to be with you. When you feel a deep sense of peace come over you, when you feel your heart fill with love, when your feel the room is full of light, then you know that God(dess) is with you.”

Then came the next instruction.

“When you pray, you don’t need to plead, beg, lament in distress or recite the words of a prayer that you were taught in childhood like a limerick. You simply open up a conversation as if you’re talking with a beloved friend or guardian. Ask for guidance. Share your hopes. Offer gratitude for your blessings. Simple be in the presence of holiness for a little while. And then listen…”

She told me that God(dess) doesn’t always answer in words, but most often with a knowing in your heart. The answer may not come today, but trust that your answer and a way forward will be revealed in the days to come. Perhaps you may not even get an answer. Instead, you will wake up to find your situation has been healed and all is on the mend.

She was my spiritual instruction teacher, a compassionate and somewhat unconventional nun named after a rose. I was 16 when I decided to start taking classes with her and she taught me this form of meditative prayer. For a year, I spent my Friday afternoons with her, learning about the church, spirituality, angels, the lives of saints and seemingly simple yet life-changing life skills like how to pray and meditate. While I’ve long let go of the limiting beliefs and ways of orthodox religion and opened up to a broader perception of spirituality, both prayer and meditation have remained a central part of my personal spiritual practice.

Sometimes I wonder why I did that. Why did I choose to offer my Friday afternoons up to learn about spirituality when I could have been hanging out with my friends and getting up to teenage mischief? The only answer I can think of is that it must have been what my soul needed in the midst of my unsettled home life. I followed what my wild essence called me to. These classes gave be the kind of grounding and hope that the adults in my life where unable to give me at the time. Learning how to pray in this manner offered healing for my wounds and inspiration in times when I felt jaded.

Just as there are a thousand ways to draw the sun, there are many ways to pray too. Is the journey of a feather falling quietly and then landing softly on the Earth not a prayer? What about the way withering sunflowers bow their heads in soulful prayer, surrendering to the beauty of falling apart?

Sometimes a prayer means saying “please help me”, crying yourself to sleep and then waking up with the courage to face another day. And sometimes a prayer is as small a gesture as opening up the conservation to say “thank you” and then listening long enough to hear the response “you are welcome”.

I doesn’t matter who you prayer to. We each need to remain open to what resonates best with our own inner being.

How do you pray?

“each pond with its blazing lilies is a prayer heard and answered lavishly, every morning,

whether or not you have ever dared to be happy, whether or not you have ever dared to pray.”

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6 thoughts on “How To Pray”

Oh Jodi, this is so lovely, about the sunflower falling apart, about hearing that silent knowing in your heart. It sounds like a very sacred and special time that you had with your teacher. She sounds lovely.

I guess I pray silently for the most part, but sometimes I write, and that feels good. I go through my day listening for her, the goddess, and try to hear her in everything I do, as often as I remember. I haven’t done this lately though, I keep feeling weak, but your post inspires me.

I agree, writing is a form of pray too. I am so happy that you are sharing more of your writing, I really look forward to reading your gentle and honest words. Sending loving Goddess vibes your way that your strength and inspiration keeps returning to you.

Kate Rose

I was blessed to be raised in a prayer-full home, although like you Jodi, my path has taken me away from conventional religion, but I am grateful for that introduction to prayer and cannot remember a time in my life, from a very small girl, that I did not naturally pray. However, if I am truthful, I noticed recently, during a stressful and anxious time, I was kind of giving the Goddess “to-do” lists and I started to sit in silent surrender and contemplation and found a sweet peace there…

“Sit in silent surrender” – I just love that! Indeed, I lovely way to reconnect with sweet peace. It’s funny how regardless of how our spiritual beliefs evolve over the years, certain tools still serve us in meaningful ways.